We spoke to Scott Eastwood leading up to the release of 1992, his gripping new heist movie set during a pivotal time in Los Angeles amid the Rodney King riots. Scott’s ambitious character’s dad is played in the film by the late, great Ray Liotta in one of his final films, so it’s wonderfully nostalgic seeing the pair converse and butt heads via their fictional roles on the big screen. In real life, Scott’s Oscar-winning dad, Clint Eastwood, has kept busy with a highly anticipated new drama called Juror No. 2, which also stars Clint’s daughter Francesca Eastwood and plenty of other big names.
At 94 years old, the world of cinema has to wonder if Juror No. 2 will be Clint’s last film — or if he’ll just keep on trucking. “Look, you can never count out my dad in making another movie,” Scott told MovieWeb. “He’s been doing it for a long time.”
And then having Liotta playing your movie-dad certainly has its perks, as Scott explained to us: “Getting to spend the summer with Ray [for 1992], it was really great, and I will cherish that forever. Getting to hear about the making of Goodfellas and working with Martin Scorsese, you know, that was really nice, to get to learn about his filmography and his history doing this. So, you know, I will really always remember the summer that I got to work with Ray.”
Eastwood’s 20-Year Friendship With Tyrese Gibson
Scott’s new film also benefits from a Fast & Furious reunion, with Tyrese Gibson stealing the show in 1992 as a struggling dad trying to navigate the Watts riots while protecting his son. “Tyrese and I go back, you know, we’ve worked together a few times, and we’ve had a longstanding friendship for probably going on 20 years,” said Scott. “So getting to work with Tyrese is easy. Like, we just go and we knock it out. We have fun.” Scott also explained his personal connection to the real-life subject matter explored in 1992:
“I was definitely familiar with it, was around during it. I remember my parents being glued to the TV, remember people talking about it. But I was young, so I think examining it again and relearning about it as an adult and learning about more — and I thought it was a great idea for a film. It took this seminal moment in history, and you stick a really grounded, interesting heist movie at the center of it, and I think that it was a cool, original idea for a film.”
It also helps that Scott is into heist movies in real life, as he confirmed to us. “There’s like a fun wish-fulfillment,” he said. “You want to see these heists, I don’t know why, they’re fun escapism. They’re fun to watch and, you know, maybe sometimes root for the bad guys, maybe see if they’re gonna get away with it, see what that internal conflict is. So I always like movies like this.”
From Lionsgate, 1992 will be released in theaters on Aug. 30, 2024.